Septic after Dirt

You can see the three green lids that mark where the tank is located.  You can also see in the distance the vent right before the sand filter.

The Field Before Dirt

Here is the pipe coming out of the house.  It heads slightly downhill to the tank.  The bottom of the trench is lined with sand to provide a stable base.

This picture shows the entire field and the pipe doing from each section of the septic field.

The pipe coming from the house to the tank had to line up perfectly with the inlet on the tank.

As you can see, the pipe coming out the other end of the tank is at a lower level.  This is where the siphon shoots the water down the hill.

Here is the giant hole filled with the tubes of packing peanuts.  The water enters through the pipe in the foreground and runs back and forth through the tubes.

The end of the sand filter takes a sharp turn downhill toward the pond.

And finally, it disappears into the brush....to water the plants down there.

Inside the Tank

I took a few pictures of the inside of the tank (because one we are in the house it won't be clean) so that we know what is in there.  The two pictures show the first two tanks and their filters.

The tank sits beneath about a foot or so of dirt, so these black extenders needed to be added to that if we ever needed to access the tank, we can.  The small pipe on the side of the tank is where the pipe from the house will hook to the tank.

The Tank Itself

The septic tank itself was quite an ordeal to get into the ground.  For one, it weighed 15,000 pounds (that is 7.5 tons).  The second obstacle was the terrain.  The original plan was to hook the tank to the bucket of the excavator and just carefully lift it and slide it into place.  However, the arm of excavator was not able to be extended as far as needed and lift that much weight at the same time.  We ended up putting it back on the boom truck and creating a temporary road to back up to the hole.  Watching the front wheels on the truck go slowly up and down as they lowered the tank in place was pretty nerve wracking!

This picture shows the tank connected to the bucket of the excavator.  You can see it is off the ground, but not enough.

Here is a picture showing the tank on the back of the truck.  Everyone stood and watched and held their breath as the truck backed up to the hole and started to extend it toward the hole.

You can't really see it in this picture, but the front wheels had no weight on them and could have been up to half an inch off the ground.

Dirt work for the Septic Tank

Ryan is lucky to have friends that have crazy useful equipment when it comes to building a house.  We needed a trench dug.  Guess what!  We know someone that has a HUGE excavator!  How handy.  So, Ryan's friends brought over their excavator and dug a 4 foot trench for a 4 inch pipe.

Here is the hole where the septic tank will sit.  They said it was one of the most difficult holes they ever had to dig.  It was on the side of a hill and needed to be perfectly level.  The trench also had to "fall" a certain degree from the house to the tank.

Here is where the sand filter will go.  It is at the far end of the septic field and at the bottom of the hill.  Compare the two holes.  Notice how the one farther down the hill (closer to the pond) has all the black dirt.

This is the trench for the pipe that will lead from the sand filter to the pond.

Here is the septic field from the bottom looking back toward the house.  The picture doesn't really do it justice as to the shear size of the project.

Septic System and Tank

Some of you may be familiar with a septic tank; some of you may not be.  I will give you a short explanation of what our particular type of septic system does.  Our septic tank is a 3 chamber tank and the system is referred to as a sand filter septic.

Here is (to the best of my knowledge) how the system works:
1.  Flush the toilet or drain the sink
2.  The waste water flows down through the plumbing and out of the house down the hill to the septic tank.
3.  The waste water enters the first chamber of the septic tank.  Any heavy materials sink to the bottom and the liquid does not.
4.  Once the liquid has reached the top of the first chamber, it is filtered as it falls into the second chamber.
5.  Same process as with the first chamber (although the heavy materials are much less) and onto the third chamber.
6.  Instead of merely spilling into the septic field.....the water leaving the last chamber is shot (yes as in the implication of great force!) down into the sand filter.
7.  The filter is made up of sand and giant tubes of packing peanuts.  The water filters down through these layers.
8.  The water from the filter runs down a tube and into the pond.
9.  The "guarantee" on this system:  The water coming out of the sand filter...is drinkable.  (I am not going to try it).

Disclaimer:  If there is anything that needs changing (meaning Ryan says I didn't explain it well enough), it will be in the comments below.

Mailbox!

My parents got us our mailbox!  Although it is blurred out, I put our address on it with those sticky letters!

Starting to shingle

Shortly after the sheeting was finished on the roof, they started putting the tar paper down.  The pink piles in the front of the garage are the shingles.  We decided to get the upgraded shingles with the algae protection.  That means that over time, our roof will not show the water streaks that you see on some older homes.

Look what runs in our front yard!

Our one complaint (other than the County Line Road) is that Mediacom and CenturyLink do not provide internet service to our address.  Obviously, it is not a deal breaker, but we do love our online games!

We had some locating done so that we could do some digging in the front yard.  Guess what runs through our front yard...That's right, major cables for Mediacom and CenturyLink.  I did some calling and it would be too expensive to branch off from the main line.  *sigh*

Foam board

To increase the R value (you may go google that) of the house, Ryan decided to attach foam board on the outside of the sheeting.  This replaced the typical Ty-vek that you see on most new construction homes.  By doing foam board and using tape to seal the seams, it makes our house virtually air tight.  It eliminates all the staple holes you would find with Ty-vek.

July 6, front and back

The two pictures in the post are from July 6.  It shows the progress from the front and the back of the house.  The majority of the sheeting is done, both on the roof and on the sides.

Sheeting the roof and sides and front stoop

Here is Doug and Ryan up on the roof working on putting the sheeting down on the roof.  The boards they are putting down is what the tar paper and shingles will be attached.  During this process of sheeting the roof, it was very, very windy.  Figures right?  At least they are getting some shade on the inside.

Also, in this picture the front stoop is taking shape!

Hurricane ties

This picture shows one of the things that Ryan has done to improve the quality and longevity of the house.  He designed the roof to be a hip roof all the way around with the exception of the front stoop.  with a hip roof, it is more difficult for the wind to whip around and lift up under the edge of the roof and damage it.

The metal plates you see attaching the top plate of the wall to the roof trusses are called hurricane ties.  So, the bottom board of the wall is secured to the concrete foundation with huge bolts drilled into the concrete.  The wall studs are secured with several framing nails and the top plate to the roof trusses with hurricane ties.  What does this mean?  It would take a hurricane....or more to lift the roof off of our house.

Just another picture of our view...

Here is one of the many pictures of what our view will be out our deck.  Can't wait to take the kids swimming and fishing next summer!  Also, in the dead of horribly cold weather, it is a nice reprieve to think about how green it can be!

Wow....Sorry!

I would like to apologize in advance for the flurry of posts to come.  I have gotten waaaayyy behind.  Six months behind to be exact.  Things have been progressing slowly but surely.  Just a little FYI, we built our house in the wettest spring (16.5" of rain) and one of the coldest winters (with no heat in the house!!!).  It has been a crazy 6 months since my last post.

Enjoy!